# What Basic Capacity Costs in London

Canonical HTML: https://www.praxis-agents.ai/articles/cost-of-capacity

**Short answer:** Employing one full-time London Living Wage role costs an employer roughly GBP 33,118 per year - the baseline against which AI agent capacity is priced.

This page is a supporting benchmark behind the broader pricing argument. It uses published figures to show the approximate employer cost of a full-time London Living Wage role.

## Reference Figure

Approximate minimum employer cost: **GBP 33,118**

This is based on a 37.5-hour week at the London Living Wage, plus employer National Insurance and minimum pension contributions.

## Benchmark Figures

- **GBP 28,860**: 37.5-hour London Living Wage salary
- **GBP 33,118**: minimum employer cost including employer National Insurance and minimum pension
- **GBP 35,388**: 40-hour week equivalent before recruitment, management, equipment, and churn

## Why The Salary Is Not The Full Cost

The page says these figures are intentionally conservative and exclude:

- recruitment
- onboarding
- management time
- hardware
- software
- holiday
- sickness
- knowledge loss when someone leaves

## Sources Used

- Living Wage Foundation
- HMRC
- The Pensions Regulator

## Assumption Note

The main benchmark uses a 37.5-hour week across 52 weeks, then applies employer National Insurance and the minimum pension contribution. A 40-hour figure is shown separately for teams that use a longer standard week.